posted
OSC is still considered a Democrat? I know, there are plenty of threads on this from time to time, but each article of his makes me cringe, mostly in embarrassment. His recent "talk bad about the President and the terrorists win" bit was notably bad. This was how the Replicans spun things at the start of the Iraq war....even THEY have backed off the censorship bit. Why anyone expects half the country to sit on their hands with tape over their mouths is just beyond me.
I am curious...in a campaign year, how DO you run a campaign if it isn't to give alternates to the current ones in power? Simply say "heck, we aren't going to run a candidate...he is doing such a fine job! Give him a hand!" and be done with it? Or show how you might do things differently? True, the tone hasn't been the best but even the Republican pundits admit their party was the first to go down and dirty because, let's face it, it works.
OSC makes me think of a guy I saw on the Daily Show this week (a tape...I think it was last week's show) where the author on there (He wrote "Chain of Command") basically said that there was a coup in the US government. The neocons took over and no one knows how or why, but there they are and half the people buy into it. The author called them "Utopiaists" if that is the right way to spell it. OSC seems to be thinking this way...we should be an ideal utopia where there isn't a need for discontent or criticism. And if we have it, keep it shut because (GASP!) if the terrorists hear that we don't like the war, they might blow themselves up even more.
Right. Terrorists have been blowing things up, themselves included, for quite some time. I think that if a person is willing to actually GIVE THEIR LIFE for their cause...not risk it, like our soldiers do...but actually GIVE it, then simply shutting up isn't going to make them shrug their shoulders and walk away.
I don't know. Just sad. I mean, it isn't even a new tact to spout this "loose lips sinks ships" jive. I guess I expect too much.
posted
this is why I have givenup on reading his columns. It doesn't help that according to yet another article this war has been a fraud from the start. [
Posts: 9942 | Registered: Mar 2003
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posted
I really don't know whether OSC is a democrat or not. I'm sure he has justifications for not switching parties. His essays have attacked many of the traditionally democratic issues. Usually, though, OSC's articles represent a fairly radical interpretation of the facts, but they at least have respect for those facts. I occasionally still read the articles, but the first time I have ever stopped reading one in the middle was this time. John Kerry has been consistently portyared by the administration as "flip-flopping." This is a bone they throw out to those members of their party who have no idea how Congress works. Their website lists Kerry's position on Iraq as having "changed" about seven or eight times, and then it lists seven or eight different statements Kerry has made about Iraq. Some of them are not phrased very well, but not a single one is inconsistent with Kerry's actual position on the Iraq war, which, alas, doesn't fit very well on a bumper sticker.
George W. Bush does not believe Kerry is a flip flopper any more than I do. This is an empty criticism used to gather support among the uneducated, a tactic whose effectiveness is demonstrated by the slavering throng of pink flip-flop waving republicans chanting "flip flop flip flop" during the RNC. (BTW, unsupported and unfactual claims against the other candidate are not a bastion of the Republicans alone, but this year, theirs have been a sight more effective.)
To see OSC repeat this baseless criticism that isn't even intended for the idealogues of the Republican party, but for the apolitical "undecideds" and such, is to see one of two things. Either OSC is becoming a mouthpiece for the Republican attack machine, repeating the talking points that even he knows are false, or far more distressing for me as one of his literary admirers, that he doesn't see through this gossamer veil the Bush reelection organization has thrown over Kerry to avert the eyes of only those people who don't care enough to look through it.
Posts: 894 | Registered: Apr 2000
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posted
Frankly, I don't care that he's "just a writer." I would attack that assertion if it were made by any educated person, ESPECIALLY someone claiming to be a democrat. Add on top of it that he writes a political column, and he's kinda opening himself up to it.
Posts: 894 | Registered: Apr 2000
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posted
It is almost as absurd, and as crazy, as saying Jesus doesn't want you to drink a glass of wine.
Posts: 2752 | Registered: Feb 2001
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quote:OSC: This is, of course, ridiculous. Al Qaeda has been under relentless pressure under President Bush; only if Kerry is elected can that pressure be expected to let up.
OSC is a registered Democrat because he feels strongly enough about race relations that it makes him stay registered Democrat even when he does support the Rep. nominee for president over the Dem one.
But the thing is, if you start looking at his opinions on local politics you'll discover that he really is a Democrat, or at least, a real NC Democrat, it's just that he leans back over to the right in National politics, and that's almost always what he writes about.
posted
TSS, he's already set the stage to blame the media for tricking the American voter if Kerry wins, and stealing the election from Bush.
Posts: 13123 | Registered: Feb 2002
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quote: Do we look to L Ron Hubbard, Stephen King or Nora Roberts for social guidance?
Well, the first guy has a huge religion based on his writings, so obviously some people do. But that isn't the point. He is a writer I respect for his written word in his novels, words that have at times significantly moved me beyond just entertaining. To see that the person behind the words act in such a demeaning way diminishes my respect for him. And as noted, it isn't like he is writing in a vacuum or something...he writes a published social commentary on his website that promotes it (as well, it seems, as his local paper). So it isn't like I am sneaking a peak into his diary or anything.
NC Democrat. Not sure what that means. Like Reagan Democrats? I mean, it isn't unusual for some Republicans to register as Democrats so they can pick their own faves in the primaries (and vice versa). I know folks who have done this, but for the life of me I can't see why. But that isn't what OSC is doing. Not in this article, but in others he says "I am a Democrat, but..." and goes on to show why that "but" is so clearly important. Maybe he and other fall into a new category of Democrat...the Zell Miller Democrat. That clearly speaks to what kind of Democrat he is.
posted
I was trying to figure out who SBS was, and then realized I was safer with the assumption that ScottR was being a smart alek.
Posts: 26077 | Registered: Mar 2000
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